Macgirl's Holiday Media Picks

It's here!  Christmas week is upon us.  Between the shopping and visiting and running errands and getting last-minute work projects done, try to take some time to enjoy the holiday classics. 

Links are to iTunes or independent sources if available.

Music:

John Lennon, Happy Xmas (War is Over)

Burl Ives, The Very Best of Burl Ives

Bing Crosby, White Christmas

Performance:

Great Performances:Dance in America: San Francisco Ballet's `Nutcracker' (linked to your local PBS station to check for air times)

White Christmas (playing at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia)

Movies:

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Elf

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Shows:

 Prep and Landing (on ABC Family, check local listings)

A Charlie Brown Christmas (on ABC, stream it on their site anytime) 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Macgirl's Media Pick: A Thanksgiving Tradition

Jelly of the Month Club??!!

When it's the holiday season, things get crazy for most families. Above the yelling, and the leftovers, and the football on Thanksgiving there's one seasonal favorite that can bring everyone together: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  This movie manages to entertain and bring together a very diverse group of individuals, from the granola-crunching vegetarian to the enjoys-seeing-spine-crushing football fanatic, and we can all laugh in harmony as the Griswold family runs for their lives from the rabid squirrel.  Thank goodness for Chevy Chase.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, available on iTunes and in constant rotation on basic cable TV all season. 

Macgirl Media Pick of the Week: Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers & Tides

Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers & Tides-Working with Time (2001) is a fascinating look behind the scenes with the artist working literally "in the field". He is a driven sculpture artist and photographer. He works with found items to create spectacular moments in time, which he then captures on film, and has produced lively and surprising images which he then publishes in wonderful art/coffee books.

His wiki entry is a great resource is you aren't familiar with his work. 

This documentary, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, offers an incredibly intimate look at Goldsworth's methods and home life, including long periods of time spent with him in his adopted home town in Scotland. 

The well-captured images of the beautiful land and water relaxes and invigorates...I was ready to run outside and start my own natural sculpture as soon as the movie (and all of the extras) was finished.

Find it on iTunes: Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time

Macgirl Media Pick of the Week: Mumford & Sons

I am loving Mumford & Sons right now.  It's hard to believe this week's pick is a band that just formed in 2007.  They have a depth and quality of decades-old performers.  The band is comprised of members Marcus Mumford, Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane.  Their sound is achy and twangy, like a mix of Wilco and My Morning Jacket.  This young group of friends have brought me the best song I've heard in ages...Little Lion Man.

Here's the Little Lion Man video for your enjoyment:

Macgirl Media Pick of the Week: Let's Get Lost

I remember watching Beck on a talk show some years ago. I'm afraid it might have been Ellen DeGeneres, filling in on a late-night show. Or maybe I'm blocking having watched her daytime show at some point. Anyhoo...Ellen brought up loving the song "Loser". She may have even sung a few bars. And Beck just sat in stoney silence, then creepily told her he does not discuss his past and basically, that time of such drivel is behind him. Ouch! Way to respond to a fan, on national TV, a-hole.

Nonetheless, I have continued to listen to his music and am most interested in the sound of this collaboration of Bat for Lashes and Beck. It feels, literally, "hauntingly familiar", and I can't quite place it, but I know this sound already and I like it. I didn't realize initially that this song was in the tween hit movie Eclipse, and finding out did not stop me from liking it. It's hypnotic and smooth. It's also a new experience, that my 10 year old niece was into a song before me. Way to go kiddo. Keep liking brooding vampires, I say. (think she's too young to introduce her to the Angel DVDs?)

You can listen to it here at Crawdaddy.